Jaguar Land Rover kicks off NAIAS with a year to brag about

The Jaguar F-Type Coupe was revealed at the L.A. Auto Show in November.

PHOTO: Handout, Jaguar

Breakthrough sales was all the buzz over at Jaguar and Land Rover during this year's NAIAS

By David Booth

Originally published: January 12, 2014

SMALL

MEDIUM

LARGE

It was a year to brag about for Jaguar Land Rover. Launching the most anticipated sports car of the 2013 — the F-Type Coupe and Roadster — was just the most visible breakthrough for the once struggling English (by way of India) marque. Thanks to the continued success of the ground-breaking Evoque luxury sport cute and newly aluminum-ized Range Rover Sport sales were up some 15 percent for yet another all-time record of 425,026 sales worldwide.

And while most of that were the 348,338 Land Rovers sold in 2013, Jaguar finally started its long proclaimed resurgence, sales up a whopping 42 percent (76,688 sales) worldwide. More impressive, says Andy Goss, the group’s worldwide sales director, is that Jaguar Land Rover has doubled sales over the last 36 months with the emerging markets accounting for almost 50 percent of the company’s total sales.

The all-wheel-drive Jaguar XF.Handout, Jaguar

Closer to home, though the F-Type stole the headlines, much more important to the bottom line was the addition of a V6-powered, all-wheel-drive versions of Jaguar’s range-topping XJ as well as the BMW 5-Series fighting XF. Both XF and XJ posted best years (XF its best ever; XJ the best in a decade) worldwide, sales increases that were echoed in Canadian sales.

On the Land Rover side, it’s easy to credit the style setting Evoque for Land Rover’s continuing success with 124,292 (up 15 percent) sales worldwide, but even the Range Rover is posting impressive numbers — 45,077 sales: up 64 percent — despite its soaring price tag. It is why, Goss says, that the company generated an almost two billion pound profit on sales of 16 billion in another record for one year.

The Range Rover Evoque.Handout, Land Rover

With such momentum — not to mention the 195 major automotive awards the company won in 2013 — it’s little wonder Goss paints a rosy picture for 2014. Indeed, it is perennial laggard Jaguar that he sees leading the charge with the C-X17 set to join the still-fresh F-Type and the all-wheel-drive sedans in segments where Jaguar had, until very recently, no offerings.